Queen Elizabeth Makes Angelina Jolie a Dame

By Antoinette Bueno 10:07 AM PDT, June 14, 2014

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Angelina Jolie, 39, is now officially Dame Angelina.

Queen Elizabeth made the Maleficent actress an honorary dame in London on Friday, June 13, 2014, in honor of her efforts to raise global awareness of violence against women as the co-founder of the Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative.

"To receive an honor related to foreign policy means a great deal to me, as it is what I wish to dedicate my working life to," Jolie said in a statement, via People. "Working on PSVI and with survivors of rape is an honor in itself. I know that succeeding in our goals will take a lifetime, and I am dedicated to it for all of mine."

Jolie made headlines recently, when she confirmed that a particularly dark scene from her Disney film Maleficent was a metaphor for rape.

In the scene, Maleficent is drugged and has her massive wings cut off by King Stefan, a man she trusted.

"We were very conscious, the writer and I, that [the scene in question] was a metaphor for rape," Jolie said during an interview with BBC Radio's Women's Hour on June 10. "The core of [Maleficent] is abuse, and how the abused have a choice of abusing others or overcoming and remaining loving, open people. The question was asked, 'What could make a woman become so dark? To lose all sense of her maternity, her womanhood, and her softness?'"